| Posted by: Helter-Skelter at June 29, 2003, 1:49 pm | | Topic: Reviews: 28 Days Later Forum: JoBlo | | Overall 28 Days Later is an interesting, unsettling, although ultimately flawed horror film. The set-up of the film is excellent - a virus, transmited via blood & saliva, escapes from a research facility in Britian that renders the person infected with it a rage-filled monster that has only one purpose - to kill. Over the course of a few weeks, nearly everyone in Britian is either dead or infected & the movie proceeds to follow a handful of survivors who are trying to stay alive. The zombies in 28 Days Later are not your typical zombies, they're far more dangerous. Unlike your standard Romero-esque zombies, these zombies displayed no decay, didn't shuffle & stumble about uttering only groans. Instead they jerked & ran while making sounds of incoherent rage. Despite their behavioiur, the only physical features which distinguishs the infected from the uninfected are their red cat-like eyes & their constant vomiting of bood. I also enjoyed many of the visuals and shot (although I wasn't a fan of the quick cuts of the fight scenes). Boyle keeps the movie draped in shadow and darkness for the most part, & he often chose to make shots which maximize the isolation of the main characters - shots of one of the world's great cities almost totally devoid of life, normal life anyways, greatly added to the film's already oppressive atmosphere. The 1st half of the movie is far better than the second. The first half is mainly about a group of surviors in London trying to find others who had survived the carnage, while the second half involves the small group of surviors meeting up with a small group of soliders. Let's just say the movie becomes very predictable at this point by reverting to a theme featured countless times in other zombie movies - people fighting people while they should be fighting the zombies. The very ending also is a disappointment and felt far too abrupt. Despite it's flaws, for the most part the movie succeeds in a few crucial ways - it manages to create an atmosphere of dread and doom, the main characters are for the most part likeable, and the movie succeeds in producing some geniunely frightening moments - although it doesn't even come to close to toppling the king of terrifying movies, The Ring. Unforunately, I can't help but feel that with it's setup & look this movie had the potential to become a classic zombie movie ala Night of the Living Dead & Dawn of the Living Dead, but due to some poor plot choices, it falls somewhere between Dawn of the Living Dead & Resident Evil. 7/10 |
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